Monday, July 12, 2010

La Fortuna Costa Rica has its fair share of Poison Dart Frogs... but luckily, there's only ONE michael alan.

love, Love, LOVE the Strawberry poison dart frog. Well, around La Fortuna Costa Rica, we call it the 'Blue Jean Frog' for obvious reasons. Yup, it's poisonous, how poisonous depends on who you ask. And in this picture I'm eyeballing it just make sure it doesn't decide to jump in my mouth.

If you're ever in the La Fortuna/Arenal area, you can find the 'Blue Jean Frog' without a Guide if you just follow one of our travel tip videos, this one to be exact: La Fortuna Costa Rica- the Secret REVEALED. I highly recommend visiting 'Salto' regardless if you're interested in frogs or NOT.

A Few Facts about the Dendrobates Pumilio aka, The Strawberry Poison Dart Frog or Blue Jean Frog:

* Found mostly in the tropical forests of Central America.

* Strawberry poison dart frogs are fairly little and only grow to be about 1/2 to 2 inches long. They are bright red with blue legs and are often called the "blue jean frog" because of the brightly colored top and blue legs. The beautiful, bright colors are warnings to potential predators that the frogs are poisonous.

*Poison dart frogs fertilize their eggs externally, that is to say, the female lays a clutch of eggs and a male fertilizes them afterward, in the same manner as most fish.

* Strawberry poison dart frogs take their parenting seriously (taken from the folks at WIKI):

The red-and-blue poison-arrow frog (Dendrobates pumilio) carry their newly hatched tadpoles into the canopy. The tadpoles stick to the mucus on the back of their parents. Once in the upper reaches of the rainforest trees the parents deposit their young in the pools of water that accumulate in epiphytic plants such as bromeliads. The tadpoles feed on invertebrates in their arboreal nursery and their mother will even supplement their diet by depositing eggs into the water.

* Strawberry poison dart frogs are diurnal which means they're active during the day, unlike most frogs that are nocturnal (active during the night).

* They use their long sticky tongues to capture preys like spiders, small insects, ants, termites and small crickets. According to scientists, these insects acquire the poison from their plant diet, which can be the source of toxicity in poison dart frog.

* The lifespan of the Strawberry poison dart frog seems to be speculative at best, I've read anywhere from 3-16 years in the wild and up to 35 years in captivity. In captivity they tend to lose their poisonous toxins due to diet.